Related papers: Metastability and low lying spectra in reversible …
In this letter we announce rigorous results that elucidate the relation between metastable states and low-lying eigenvalues in Markov chains in a much more general setting and with considerable greater precision as was so far available.…
We consider continuous-space, discrete-time Markov chains on $\mathbb{R}^d$, that admit a finite number $N$ of metastable states. Our main motivation for investigating these processes is to analyse random Poincar\'e maps, which describe…
We consider a simple but important class of metastable discrete time Markov chains, which we call perturbed Markov chains. Basically, we assume that the transition matrices depend on a parameter $\varepsilon$, and converge as $\varepsilon$.…
We propose a new definition of metastability of Markov processes on countable state spaces. We obtain sufficient conditions for a sequence of processes to be metastable. In the reversible case these conditions are expressed in terms of the…
Metastability is a physical phenomenon ubiquitous in first order phase transitions. A fruitful mathematical way to approach this phenomenon is the study of rare transitions Markov chains. For Metropolis chains associated with Statistical…
We study a class of Markov chains that describe reversible stochastic dynamics of a large class of disordered mean field models at low temperatures. Our main purpose is to give a precise relation between the metastable time scales in the…
We examine two analytical characterisation of the metastable behavior of a Markov chain. The first one expressed in terms of its transition probabilities, and the second one in terms of its large deviations rate functional. Consider a…
We establish metastability in the sense of Lebowitz and Penrose under practical and simple hypothesis for (families of) Markov chains on finite configuration space in some asymptotic regime, including the case of configuration space size…
Consider a sequence of continuous-time Markov chains $(X^{(n)}_t:t\ge 0)$ evolving on a fixed finite state space $V$. Let $I_n$ be the level two large deviations rate functional for $X^{(n)}_t$, as $t\to\infty$. Under a hypothesis on the…
We present a general method to derive the metastable behavior of weakly mixing Markov chains. This approach is based on properties of the resolvent equations and can be applied to metastable dynamics which do not satisfy the mixing…
In this paper we consider Markov chains with transition rates that depend on a small parameter $\varepsilon$. Under a mild assumption on the asymptotics of these transition rates, we describe the behavior of the chain at various…
Consider a sequence $(\eta^N(t) :t\ge 0)$ of continuous-time, irreducible Markov chains evolving on a fixed finite set $E$, indexed by a parameter $N$. Denote by $R_N(\eta,\xi)$ the jump rates of the Markov chain $\eta^N_t$, and assume that…
A perturbation framework is developed to analyze metastable behavior in stochastic processes with random internal and external states. The process is assumed to be under weak noise conditions, and the case where the deterministic limit is…
We study the hitting times of Markov processes to target set $G$, starting from a reference configuration $x_0$ or its basin of attraction. The configuration $x_0$ can correspond to the bottom of a (meta)stable well, while the target $G$…
A definition of metastable states applicable to arbitrary finite state Markov processes satisfying detailed balance is discussed. In particular, we identify a crucial condition that distinguishes genuine metastable states from other types…
In this paper, we consider semi-Markov processes whose transition times and transition probabilities depend on a small parameter $\varepsilon$. Understanding the asymptotic behavior of such processes is needed in order to study the…
We present a formalism to describe slowly decaying systems in the context of finite Markov chains obeying detailed balance. We show that phase space can be partitioned into approximately decoupled regions, in which one may introduce…
It is known that state-dependent, multi-step Lyapunov bounds lead to greatly simplified verification theorems for stability for large classes of Markov chain models. This is one component of the "fluid model" approach to stability of…
We investigate the metastable behavior of reversible Markov chains on possibly countable infinite state spaces. Based on a new definition of metastable Markov processes, we compute precisely the mean transition time between metastable sets.…
In the setting of non-reversible Markov chains on finite or countable state space, exact results on the distribution of the first hitting time to a given set $G$ are obtained. A new notion of "strong metastability time" is introduced to…